The Back 40

There's a fenced-off swath of land at the back of our new property that Jon and I jokingly call "The Back 40". A long time ago, some previous owner of this home (probably the original owner) decided that it was just too much trouble to clear the last bit of the property, so they put up a chain link fence and called it a day.

They kept a swimming pool ladder slung over the chain link fence for the rare occasions when they might want to climb back there.


The actual property line is at the wood fence. But back when this house was built, the houses (and therefore the wood fence) didn't exist, so the property backed up to vacant land. Which was apparently used for illegal dumping. A lot of illegal dumping.

"Gol-dingit, Johnny Bob! We broke the weight bench! Howsabout we go throw it in that thar field?"

So yeah, that's it. Unimaginable piles of crap; barbed wire fences, garbage, and overgrown vines that look like they belong in the Fire Swamp with the R.O.U.S.'s. You can hardly even tell that there's a huge old native oak tree in there admist the crap and overgrowth.

Our contractor has stepped in and loaned us his dump trailer, but it's going to take many, many loads.


Matthew and his friend worked for 2 days to "clear" probably 1/5 of the area (where you can actually see fence).

We are excited to see what The Back 40 looks like when it's cleared. It's quite a large area, probably as big as our current yard in terms of square footage. There's a lot that can be done! It's just going to take some really unpleasant work to get it into a civilized condition. This is the time when having a teenage boy finally starts to pay off...